PreDinner Crises
by Cutthroat Pixie
Summary: Antonio's mother is coming to visit this weekend. Part of the Six in One-verse.


Title: Pre-Dinner Crises  
Pairing/Characters: Romano/Spain/Fem!Spain, Belgium, OC parents  
Rating: K+  
Note: Pre-Six in One. Gabriela=Spain's mom, Adel=Spain's step-mom/Edmée's mom, Edmée=Belgium

* * *

Antonio is not ashamed of the relationship he has with Romano and Antonia, not one bit. He's also not one to keep secrets from his mother, but. Well. He's always been a relatively good boy, always did well in school, always had friends who could at least pretend to be nice around his parents (Francine wasn't a nice girl, not one bit, but she was a very good actress), and his mother is so proud of him, he just doesn't know how to tell her he's maybe a little bit not as normal as she always thought he was. He knows she likes Antonia and Romano, because she's met them both and she's told him she likes them, but she hasn't met them as his girlfriend and boyfriend. She's met Romano as his roommate. She's met Antonia as Romano's girlfriend, as one of the first friends Antonio made right before he first started going to university. She knows he met Antonia first, and she'd like liked her immediately when she met her too. She'd actually been so disappointed when Antonia already had a boyfriend because Antonio's mother was just so sure Antonio should fall for a nice girl like Antonia. And he has.

He's just also fallen for her boyfriend.

Antonio knows his mother adores Romano too, because while Gabriela Carriedo Madalena is an affectionate woman, she doesn't shower her love on just anyone, and the fact that she goes out of her way to greet Romano every time she comes to visit, to bring him sweets and give him hugs and ask him how he's doing, means that she must like him very much.

Antonio doesn't want to ruin that.

He doesn't want his mother to think ill of Antonia, or of Romano, but most of all, he doesn't want her to think ill of him, because she's his mother, and he doesn't want to ever do anything to disappoint her, but he knows this just might do the trick.

It's not that Antonio doubts the love his mother has for him, or that he honestly thinks she could ever hate anything about him, he just knows that she's always wanted the best for him, and what she thinks is the best for him is to have a "proper" family. A family with a mother and a father that stay together, not a mixed, blended, and spread out family like he has now. Antonio has never minded the way his family is, because it's always been what is normal to him, but as he's grown older he's began to realise that his mother isn't always okay with the decisions she's made, even though Antonio knows they were all for the best.

Gabriela just wants her son to get married to a nice girl, to settle down and give himself the family she always thought she couldn't, and Antonio has just never had the heart to say anything about how that family might have two fathers instead, and he doesn't know how to tell her that maybe now that family will have those two fathers, and a mother, and maybe in this metaphorical family they wouldn't even be parents to begin with because Romano hasn't really said anything about kids, but they were too young anyway and.  
and.

and Antonio just doesn't know what to _do_.

"You've been staring at the ceiling for an hour," Romano says, shoving a plate of something delicious smelling at Antonio. "I really don't think it's that interesting."

"It's not."

"Then stop looking at it."

"I don't know how."

Antonio shifts his gaze when Romano sits on the bed next to him, and he catches a glimpse of an eyebrow raise and a very skeptical look. "Not even you are that stupid."

"Mamá is visiting this weekend."

Romano looks at him like he's crazy, which he probably is and says, "Okay? She can stay in Antonia's room like she did last time. Antonia still doesn't have a roommate."

"It's not that, I know she has a place to stay."

"And we didn't have any other plans this weekend...?" Romano glances up at the ceiling, thinking maybe there was something up there to look at because Antonio's back to gazing at the cream plastered nothingness above them as if it's the most interesting thing he's ever seen.

"She doesn't... you know." Normally Antonio has too many words for his own good, but it appears he's run out for once.

"She doesn't...?"

"Know."

"Know about...?"

"Us."

Romano sighs and grabs Antonio's chin, forcing him to look away from the entirely unfascinating ceiling he is still insisting on looking at. "It's not like we're all fucking each other constantly." Antonio laughs a little at that and Romano sighs again, this time in relief, because Antonio is not supposed to be the one having stupid crises in the middle of the evening. "She likes us, right? Well duh she likes me, parents love me." Antonio laughs again, because that is oddly very true. "If you don't want to tell her yet, don't tell her, but stop moping about it."

"You two already told your parents."

"No," Romano replies, nudging at Antonio with his knees to make him move over so he can lie down as well. "Antonia told our parents, and then they called me to ask if Antonia was drunk, and I had to deal with explaining that she wasn't."

"And then they cried."

"_And then they cried_," Romano repeats. "Because our moms are fucking nuts, they weren't even upset about the whole being in a three-way relationship thing, they were upset we hadn't told them sooner."

"Nonno was way more upset about that than they were."

"Because my nonno is a crazy bitch, we all know that."

"But it was okay."

"Obviously. After you got a stern talking to about how your intentions with us better be nothing but pure and noble and shit."

Antonio is no longer looking at the ceiling, but at Romano, and Romano rather prefers it stay that way, thank you very much. "I'm pretty sure the "and shit" part wasn't anywhere in that conversation."

"Well you don't need me to repeat it, you were there."

The room is silent once again, but this time it's not the awkward, silently-freaking-out silence Antonio had been sitting in before. It stays that way, for just a few moments, before Antonio's phone rings, the up-tempo and nonsense lyrics of _Ça plane pour moi_ letting them both know it's Edmée calling.

"Hey Edmée!"

"My mamá is going to be calling you," Edmée says quickly. Antonio can hear how guilty she sounds, because even he can notice important things like that sometimes.

"Uh, why?" Antonio puts a finger over Romano's lips when he looks like he's about to question what is going on. "What's wrong?"

"You know when I was visiting last time?"

"Uh huh?"

"And you guys kept taking silly pictures on my camera?"

"Uh huh... Oh. Those pictures."

"She saw them and–"

"She saw them."

"And she's not mad!" Edmée adds quickly. "She says she won't tell anyone else, she just wants to talk to you. She loves you; you know how she gets upset when she thinks you haven't told her something."

"I haven't told my mamá either, or Papá."

"I know that. It's fine Toni, just–"

"She's calling." Antonio swallows thickly, even though he knows Edmée is right and his step-mother probably isn't mad in the slightest. That's not the problem.

Edmée says a quick goodbye and Antonio pauses before accepting Adel's call on his cellphone. "Mamá is going to be so mad if she finds out Adel knew first," he tells Romano.

"Just answer the call, stupid." Antonio hesitates, but then Romano presses the proper button on the phone and the line is soon filled with Adel's voice asking him if he's there.

"Please don't tell my mamá," is the first thing out of his mouth. "I'll tell her, I promise, I was going to tell all of you, I just don't know how, please?"

"Antonio, breathe." It takes Antonio a minute to realise that both Romano and Adel have said that, and he laughs, he laughs and he can't stop laughing, hysterically, for absolutely no reason because it's really not that funny. He doesn't stop when Adel mistakes the noises for something else and asks if he's okay, doesn't stop when Romano snatches the phone from him and converses with his very concerned step-mother instead, even though Antonio knows this is really a conversation he should be having. But he just can't stop.

"I think his brain broke or something," he hears Romano say once he's calmed down a little. "No no, he's okay. I promise."

"Roma?"

"Shush, I'm on the phone." Antonio shrugs and leaves him to it– Romano really is so much better with parents than either him or Antonia are. Nobody is quite sure how, but it works. "Yes ma'am." Antonio can't quite hear what Adel is saying, but Romano doesn't look irritated and the fact that he can't hear means that Edmée was indeed correct in saying her mother wasn't angry. "I will. Sure, but not this weekend, Gabriela is coming this weekend. Alright, I'll tell him. Bye."

Romano hands Antonio back his phone after hanging up and promptly flicks him on the forehead once his hands are free. "Way to give the poor woman a heart attack."

"Sorry."

"She's coming to visit next weekend, and she says you better tell your mother soon or she's going to be very upset with you."

"But she's not upset with me anyway?"

It might just be because Antonio is very much not in his right mind, but he swears Romano gives him an affectionate look before elbowing him in the ribs. "No. She says she's sad you thought you couldn't tell anyone yet, but she loves your stupid face anyway."

"She didn't call my face stupid." Antonio pouts and rubs at his side. "Did she really call my face stupid?"

"She meant to, I could tell."

"Liar."

"Not at all. You know your family adores the shit out of you, right? Especially your mom."

Antonio does know. That's probably why he's been freaking out so much, actually, but he does know. "I don't want them to be disappointed in me."

"They're not." Romano sounds so sure of himself on that point and Antonio wonders when exactly it was that they switched and he became the one who was so unsure of things.

"You don't know that."

Romano looks like he's about to do some quality rib-elbowing again and Antonio flinches in anticipation, but it never comes, thankfully. "I fucking do, now shut up and go to sleep."

"It's not even dinner time yet, Roma."

"Exactly. It's not even dinner time and I'm already sick of you, so go to sleep until Antonia comes over to feed us."

Antonio rolls over onto his side, capturing Romano firmly in an embrace and nuzzling his face into his neck. "Thanks, Romano," is all he says before he closes his eyes and tries to sleep.

"We can always make Antonia tell the rest of your family, she's good at that."

"She is."

"Or else we'll have to put the beds back, and they're a pain in the ass to move."

"They are."

"I'm not moving the beds. If you're going to try to be all secretive, you're on your own."

"We won't have to move the beds, Roma, shush."

"You shush."

Antonio does shush. He still needs to talk to Adel later, figure out how to tell the rest of his parents (he's very much considering just letting Antonia do it), and get everything ready for his mother's visit over the weekend, but anything other than enjoying some rare snuggles from Romano (and maybe some not so rare snuggles from Antonia when she gets out of class) can wait until after dinner.


End file.
